In The Long Run
by BoscoLover55
Summary: When Bosco takes a call, he learns that good things can come from bad situations. (I don't know, I'm new at this! But give me a try anyway)
1. Bosco's Confession

Author's Note: First of all, this is my first fic, so please have mercy! I'm not quite sure what I'm exactly doing, so bear with me and any help is appreciated. Hope you enjoy my first story ever- In The Long Run.  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Third Watch, its people, places, or things in any way, shape, or form. That honor belongs to John Wells and all those other people whose names fly by real fast at the end of the show. So I'm just temporarily borrowing those lucky ducks fine creations for a bit.  
  
Chapter One- Bosco's Confession  
  
Bosco and Faith are riding in their RMP towards the middle of their shift. Faith radios Central and requests to go on break for dinner. Permission was granted.  
  
"Oh Thank God! I was so hungry. I skipped lunch today because Charlie said the smell of cooking food was making him nauseous. This flu has really got him in bad shape," said Faith.  
  
"Really? That's good," said Bosco distractedly, staring out his passenger window as Faith pulled the car into a parking space in front of their favorite diner.  
  
"You think?" asked Faith.  
  
"Yea of course," said Bosco still staring intently out the window.  
  
Faith shook her head and wondered what was causing Bosco to be trapped in his own world. He surely hadn't seemed himself the past few days. He had handled several calls calmly, never once losing his temper and insulting the person. This was cause for some extreme concern from Faith. She wondered if he was upset with her for something.  
  
"Bos," she said, turning in her seat to face her partner before she shut the car off, "what's up with you these past few days? You don't seem yourself lately and I'm starting to get worried. Tell me what's wrong."  
  
Bosco finally turned to look at her for the first time almost all shift. His eyes seemed sad and there was no trace of the grin that usually curved the corners of his mouth.  
  
"Nothing's wrong, Yokas. I'm fine."  
  
Faith looked in him in the eyes and Bosco held her gaze for the few moments before she looked away, unconvinced.  
  
"Are you sure? You haven't mouthed off to Sully or Christopher all week and you aren't tormenting anyone while on the job," she said, hoping to get a confession out of him.  
  
"Really, Faith, I'm OK. Just not in the mood to pick fights," he said, returning to staring at the window. Faith noticed his gaze following the path of a middle-aged man walking down the street with his teenage daughter. Bosco turned his head slightly as he watched them round the corner, then gave his head a little shake and opened the door to get out of the RMP.  
  
Faith watched her partner, perplexed at his behavior, then followed him across the sidewalk and into the diner. She knew that he would talk when he was ready, but she hoped that it would be sooner than later because she was starting to get really worried.  
  
~*~  
  
Dinner with Faith was quiet, but that was how most of their time spent together had been lately. Bosco wanted to tell her what's been on his mind, he wanted to so bad, but he didn't think she'd understand.  
  
When the finished their meal, which had been utterly silent except for their orders being placed and their waitresses' perky chatter, Faith radioed in that they were back in service, and they began to patrol their area.  
  
Bosco could see Faith stealing glances at him from the passenger seat as he drove, but she didn't say anything. He knew she was dying to figure out what has gotten him to behave so unusually, but he couldn't bring himself to tell her. He didn't understand why he wouldn't tell her, it wasn't even that big of a deal. Maybe he was just scared of being laughed at, but he knew Faith would never laugh at him, especially for something like this. Maybe he was nervous that it would somehow get around the house, and then he'd never hear the end of it from Sullivan. He just didn't know, but did realize if he didn't clue someone in, he would make himself go crazy in the head.  
  
"I'm sorry that I've been rude to you, Yokas," said Bosco, not taking his eyes off the road, but turning his head in her direction.  
  
"You haven't been rude, Bos. Just not you," she replied, daring to hope that he would tell her what was going on.  
  
"I guess your right. I've just.been thinking a lot lately," said Bosco, letting his sentence trail off.  
  
"About what?" asked Faith, hoping everything was OK with the partner she loved so much.  
  
"Just.stuff," said Bosco, chickening out. He couldn't tell her, she would laugh. She laughed once when he and Carlos had been talking about compassion. This stuff was compassionate. Bosco decided to tell her later.  
  
"Bosco, what's wrong with you? We're partners. Not only that, but we're best friends too. I always thought we could trust each other with everything. What's so important that you have to keep it a big secret from me?" pleaded Faith, now desperate to know what the mysterious issue was.  
  
"The big secret? Well, maybe I'm sick with cancer," said Bosco bitterly, recalling the time Bosco had been lied to about his partners health and it had caused him to get shot.  
  
"Bos!" said a shocked and offended Faith. "I thought I had apologized enough for that. I really am truly sorry, you know that!"  
  
"I'm sorry, Faith. This whole situation has got my emotions out of control. I know that was out of line. I really didn't mean that. I'm glad though that everything worked out OK with the whole cancer thing," apologized Bosco, turning to face her completely when they got to a red light.  
  
"It's OK, Bos," she said with a sigh, knowing that he wasn't going to tell her right now, and probably never at this rate. "Whenever you're ready to talk about this, my door's always open."  
  
Bosco nodded his head in appreciation and agreement. Suddenly, he couldn't hold it in any longer.  
  
"Faith, I want to have a family," Bosco stated simply as he steered the car around another one that had stalled when the light turned green.  
  
"What? You already have a family. You have Rose and Mikey, and even a dad, though he's not the greatest one," said Faith, a little confused, "and you know that you are considered part of my family."  
  
"Yes, yes, I know I have that family," he said, a little impatiently. Then he corrected himself:" I know I have those families," he turned to Faith and gave a small smile, which caused Faith to grin since it was the first time she had seen her partner smile in a week. "I want to have a family of my own."  
  
"You want to get married and have kids?" questioned Faith, not quite sure how her feelings toward this subject were.  
  
"Yes. Here I am, a 33-year-old New York City police officer with a nice apartment, an incoming steady paycheck, and a decent personality, I guess. But yet, I get dumped again and again. I want to find Mrs. Right and just settle down. I want to have kids so bad. I always wanted someone to call me Daddy and ask for hugs and give me Happy Father's Day cards. But that's just all out of reach," he said, his frustration so obvious in his voice it almost broke Faith's heart. She knew he had been interested in getting married and having children in the long run, but she didn't understand why the sudden urge to have them all now.  
  
" Bosco, I'm sure you'll find someone whose just perfect for you and is willing to have kids with you, but all in good time. And what do you mean, all this is out of your reach? Nothing is ever not in your reach," said Faith. She was startled that her friend seemed to have given up hope on his dreams that she was sure would be realities one day.  
  
"Well, there's clearly something wrong with me," said Bosco, and he almost sounded like his old self for a moment, but then the sadness and monotone came back into his voice in his next sentence. "Something that drove me and Nicole apart and something that obviously made Cruz's and mine relationship fail, and I'm not going to blame it on just that jagoff Noble and that whole situation. And how come the women that I have over for one or two nights never want to stay for more? Why does everyone seem to run away from me? Don't they realize that it hurts me?" he said, his voice almost breaking, a thing that made Faith completely astonished. Was this something that her partner was going to cry over? Tears coming from her partner were a rare occurrence.  
  
"Bosco, there's nothing wrong with you. Nothing at all. You are a fantastic man that many people love, and-" but Bosco cut her off.  
  
"Many people love me? Let's get a list going here. My Ma and you. Well that was a pretty short list," said Bosco. His sarcasm was still intact despite his saddened state.  
  
"Don't be so stupid, Bosco, there's more people than me and your mother who love you. Everyone at the house loves you, even though they do get occasionally annoyed with you, and everyone over at Camelot loves you too. Your brother loves you, and I'm sure your dad does too even though neither of them really show that they care. My entire family loves you, even Fred, and I know Charlie and Em look up to you like a second dad. Of course, Nicole loved you, even though things ended, and who knows? Maybe she still does love you. And maybe even dear old Cruz loved you, if there is any kind heart in her body, which I doubt. But if there was one, I'm sure it loved you the whole time you were together. You see? There are tons of people who care," said Faith.  
  
"That still wasn't very many people. Look at how many of them are jagoffs that I don't care for in return. It's true about you and Ma. And as much as I love Charlie and Emily I don't want to be their second dad, I want to be someone's first dad. I want to wife to come home to after work each day and I want to look at my own children's report cards and be there for them when they're sick or lonely. I would do anything to be Emily's dad right now, because she needs a dad to help her get through all this mess. You are so lucky to have her. I just want someone like her, yes even though she has problems, I want someone just like her to be my daughter," Bosco said, giving a little sigh at the end of his speech and shaking his head regretfully.  
  
Faith opened her mouth to try to console her partner after a moment's contemplation of what to say, but before any sympathetic words of wisdom came from her, their radios cackled to life.  
  
"55 David, we have a domestic disturbance at 23 South King Street. Suspect thought to be armed and dangerous."  
  
Faith looked at Bosco to see if he wanted to take the call, but he said nothing. She took his silence as consent and spoke into her radio," 55 David to Central, 23 South King Street." She turned on the lights and siren as Bosco turned the car in the other direction so he could go try to solve someone else's problems.  
  
Author's Note: PLEASE REVIEW! This is my first fic so I want to know everyone's thoughts so I can improve. I promise there will be more action in the next chapter (of course Bosco action, but the medics will make an appearance soon, and I'm going to try to throw in the bucket boys eventually) but only if you review! Thanks in advance ~BoscoLover55 


	2. And So It Begins

Summary: CHAPTER 2 IS UP! Bosco takes the call that can possibly change his life. A little more action and a little less drama this time. PLEASE REVIEW!  
  
Author's Note: Thank you so much for the reviews, faith-in-Faith, kali() and Mockingbird4. They gave me such a confidence boost. Triples thanks to faith-in-Faith for your emails and points and suggestions. They are so helpful. To all those who haven't reviewed yet, please do so I can know what you all think of my story. So here's chapter 2. Enjoy!  
  
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Third Watch, its people, places, or things in any way, shape, or form. That honor belongs to John Wells and all those other people whose names fly by real fast at the end of the show. So I'm just temporarily borrowing those lucky ducks fine creations for a bit.  
  
Chapter 2: And So It Begins  
  
"What the." said Bosco, letting his voice trail off as they arrived at 23 South King Street. He slammed on the brakes and before the car was even near a complete stop Faith had already jumped out the passenger door and Bosco was soon following. They both drew their guns and aimed them at the perpetrator, a boy who looked about 17 that was beating a girl who looked about 15 with a baseball bat with one hand, while the other pointed a gun at her.  
  
"Put your gun and the bat down!" yelled Faith, but to no avail.  
  
"55 David to Central, we are going to need EMS at this location," Bosco said quickly into his radio, while looking at Faith. She gave a nod, and they both moved into a position where the boy could be easily cornered.  
  
"I told you not to talk to him, I told you!" screamed the boy at the girl, still swinging the bat and hitting her with it. She wasn't moving, and Faith couldn't tell if it was from fear or physical disability.  
  
"Sir, put your gun down and stop hitting her," Bosco yelled but the boy either didn't hear or chose not to follow the officer's order.  
  
Bosco shook his head then moved directly behind the boy. He could see Faith a little off to the boy's right, and on his count, they both charged forward.  
  
The boy realized he was about to get caught, so he pulled back his bat to swing one more time, but Bosco managed to catch it before he brought it back down on the girl. The boy was taken by surprise and loosened his grip on his gun, which Faith promptly knocked out of his hand. With both hands now on the bat the boy managed to pull it out of Bosco's one-handed grip and swing it around away from him. It tipped Faith on the shoulder, but before Bosco even realized that, it was brought down hard into his right arm. He fell backwards in shock but managed to hold onto his gun, and the boy took off down the street, throwing the bat off towards the sides as he ran. Bosco caught his breath after a moment then radioed in to central that they needed backup and were chasing the suspect on foot.  
  
He got up and saw that Faith was already gone. He glanced around and saw the girl had managed to half drag herself away from the struggle and was now slumped against the nearby building.  
  
"Don't move, OK?" he shouted to the girl as he started to run down the street "Help is coming for you," and with that, he full out sprinted to catch the jagoff that had caused his arm to go numb.  
  
~*~  
  
Five minutes later Bosco and Faith were back where they started the chase from, unfortunately without their perpetrator but with Sully and Davis, who had come to help. The boy managed to lose all four of them by taking a turn down an unknown, cluttered alleyway. By the time the officers managed their way through the mess, the boy was gone and no one knew which way he went.  
  
The EMS had arrived just a second after the police did. Doc and Carlos climbed out of the bus and went to help the fallen girl. Sully and Davis left to take another call.  
  
"I need a C-collar, Carlos," said Doc, immediately assessing the girl and her injuries. "What happened here, Faith?" asked Doc as he used a bandage to stop a cut on the girl's leg from bleeding.  
  
"We pulled up and some boy was beating this girl up with a baseball bat. Bosco got the bat from him but he took a hit to the arm before the kid ran away down the street. Then we lost him," said Faith angrily.  
  
"He hit you, Bosco?" asked Carlos, looking up from his patient.  
  
"Yeah, nothing bad, though," he said, which was of course a lie. His arm felt like it was on fire where he got it, and he was squeezing that area because the pressure on it felt good.  
  
"Don't lie, Bosco," said Faith, reading him in an instant. "Why you holding your arm if it doesn't hurt?"  
  
Bosco didn't know what to say to that and instantly dropped his hand from his arm.  
  
"You're going to ride with us then to Mercy," said Doc, as he and Carlos went to load the stretcher holding the girl into the bus. "You should get that checked out, it might be fractured. An X-ray will tell us right away."  
  
"I'll go to Mercy with you," said Bosco, causing Doc's eyes to widen with surprise, because he was expecting a protest, "but I'm not getting checked out. I need to get the girl's statement."  
  
Doc shook his head and told Bosco to suit himself. He figured Faith would probably be able to convince him to get it checked in the end. The paramedics climbed into the bus and with their lights flashing, drove off towards the hospital with the cops following in their squad car.  
  
~*~  
  
Fifteen minutes later, Doc and Carlos were doing some paperwork at the desk at the hospital, and Faith was approaching Mary Proctor.  
  
"Hi Mary," said Faith, smiling at the woman as she walked up to her.  
  
"Hey, Faith, how's it going?" the friendly and helpful nurse asked.  
  
"Good for me, but not so good for that girl that was just brought in," Faith replied.  
  
"Oh," said Mary. "What exactly happened to her?" she questioned.  
  
"Some guy was beating her up with a baseball bat. I need to get her statement as to why," said Faith.  
  
"Well, right now she's getting some stitches and a cast put on her leg, but she'll be moved up to a room in a couple minutes. Let me check with the desk to see where they are going to put her and I'll let you know," said Mary, and she walked off.  
  
"Thanks," Faith said, to her retreating back.  
  
A moment later, Mary returned and told Faith she'll be in room 216 in about a half hour.  
  
"So where's your partner in crime?" Mary asked Faith, just noticing that Bosco's loud presence was missing and his belt was slung over Faith's shoulder.  
  
"Right now, he's in X-Ray," said Faith, slightly worried.  
  
"What?" asked Mary, surprised. "What did he do know?"  
  
"He didn't do anything for once, except be standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. When we were trying to get the boy with the bat to stop, he swung it around and popped Bosco a good one right to the arm. He said it didn't hurt but I could tell he was lying," Faith told her.  
  
"Well, I hope he's OK," said Mary," he might be annoying but I hate seeing New York's finest getting hurt on the job."  
  
Just then, sirens could be heard in the distance, signaling another patient's arrival.  
  
"I better go," said the nurse, and she hurried off to her station. "Tell Bosco I hope he's doing OK."  
  
"Will do," said Faith, but Mary was already gone, helping wheel in the newly arrived stretcher on which a bleeding man was placed.  
  
"Will do what?" said a voice behind Faith, causing her to jump. It was Bosco.  
  
"Hey! I'm not doing anything. How's your arm?" Faith asked quickly.  
  
"Well it's been better, that's for sure," he said, wincing slightly as he used his tender arm to continue buttoning his shirt. "It's definitely not broken, but there might have been a hairline fracture, but there's nothing that can really be done for that. I just have to keep it iced, and hope that the swelling goes down. They said I'm going to be really sore for the next few days."  
  
"I know how that goes," said Faith, remembering how her bruised ribs ached for days after she got hit by a lead pipe while on the job.  
  
"I can still use it, but I think I'll be put on desk duty for a day or two until I'm back to normal," said Bosco, sounding disgusted at the thought.  
  
"Maybe not," said Faith. "We can ask if you can still patrol and we'll just lie low for the next couple of days," she suggested.  
  
"Yea that sounds good to me," said Bosco, glad he would be able to stick with his partner. "Should we head back to the house?" he asked.  
  
"If you want, but I haven't gotten that girl's statement yet. She's being moved to a room where we can then see her in a few minutes," she said, repeating Mary's information.  
  
"I guess we can stick around until she gets her own room," said Bosco, not really caring what they did, and just wishing his arm would stop throbbing. I need a cold beer and a hot shower to get over this thing he thought. " Call in that we're back in service," he commanded Faith.  
  
She did as she was told, surprised Bosco wanted to get back into the swing of things so fast instead of taking a break for once. She wished she hadn't called in because not after five minutes of waiting, did they receive all call to direct traffic and do crowd control at a fire a few blocks away.  
  
"We going to take that?" Faith asked, glancing at Bosco.  
  
"See if 55-Charlie can pry themselves away from the donut shop long enough to take the call," said Bosco. "We still need to get this girl's statement."  
  
Another moment or two went by without any units in the 55 taking the call. Central again requested a unit to take the call.  
  
With a sigh, Bosco keyed his radio and said," 55-David to Central, 1922 W. 37th Street."  
  
The officers walked to their car quickly, only pausing to tell the desk that they would be back later to talk to a patient. They headed off to the fire and spent almost 45 minutes telling people to stop staring and start driving or insisting they keep walking away from the burning building. Faith noticed that Bosco was having some of his attitude back, but it wasn't full throttle. She hoped his accident had taken a little of his family desires off his mind.  
  
After the fire, call after call seem to come in. It was another crazy day in the 55, and Bosco and Faith were kept busy to the last minute of their shift and spent another good two hours doing all the paperwork at the station house afterwards. They were sitting at their desks filling out forms when Faith suddenly smacked her hand to her forehead, realizing they had never made it back to the hospital, and therefore couldn't finish filling out the paperwork.  
  
"Crap, Bos, what are we going to do?" she asked, not wanting to leave today's work to be finished tomorrow.  
  
"Well we can't go talk to her tonight, it's almost 1:30 in the morning. Proctor would have a fit if we tried," said Bosco. "I guess we can go talk to her first thing in the shift tomorrow."  
  
"You're definitely riding then?" asked Faith.  
  
"Yep. I talked to Lieu when we got in and he said as long as I'm OK doing it, he'll allow it," said Bosco, glad he was relieved of desk duty before he even got on it.  
  
"OK. First thing tomorrow," said Faith, agreeing with him.  
  
They finished their paperwork a half hour later, and said goodbye to the few remaining cops who had also been behind on their work, and headed outside. They stood outside on the sidewalk for a minute and watched a fire truck pull out from their house across the street.  
  
"Hey Bos?" said Faith, suddenly turning to him.  
  
"Yeah?" he asked, startled by her sudden speech.  
  
"You want to come over for dinner on Sunday? I'm making a turkey and insisting the entire family sit down and eat together. I would like you to be there, you haven't seen the kids in a few days," she said, the invitation slipping out of her mouth before she even really thought about it. She knew Fred would be mad, but who cares what Fred thought. Bosco wanted family, and he was going to get one this Sunday, even if it wasn't the one he exactly desired.  
  
Bosco knew was she was doing, but he was still glad at the invitation anyway. "Yea, Faith, I would really like that. Thanks," he said, truly meaning his words.  
  
"OK. I better go. Fred's probably waiting up," Faith said, and started to turn to her home. "Yea, that's cool. I'll see you tomorrow," said Bosco and he started to walk to his Mustang. I better get home to. Don't want the empty bed staying up all night for me he thought, and drove home to his deserted apartment.  
  
Author's Note: OK, kinda lame ending, I know, but I felt that the chapter was dragging along, and wanted to save the girl's statement for the next chapter. Hope I didn't bore you all to death. Please review it if you like, don't like, or don't even care so I know if I should continue writing this. Thanks again- BoscoLover55 


End file.
